dispersed after his death, and even the catalogue is lost. But book-lovers will never forget the grand master of their order. SUPPLEMENTARY READING LIST Bracton, Ralph of Diceto, Simeon of Durham, FitzNeal, Fitzstephen, Giraldus Cambrensis, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Hoveden, Jocelyn de Brakelond, William of Malmesbury, Matthew Paris, Roger of Wendover, and numerous other chroniclers appear in the Rolls Series, and a number are translated in Bohn's Series. See also MAP, W.: De Nugis Curialium, ed. T. Wright (Camden Society, 1850); RICHARD OF BURY: Philobiblon, ed. E. C. Thomas (Moring, 1903); and, for bibliography, GROSS, C. : Sources and Literature of English History (Longmans, 2nd ed., 1915). CHAPTER 3. ANGLO-NORMAN AND ANGLO-FRENCH LITERATURE The Cycles of Romance-Chansons de geste and romans d'aventure-The matter of France, of Britain, and of Rome THE CYCLES OF ROMANCE During the period when French was the language of the court and the Norman aristocracy, not only was French literature read in this country, but a good deal was written. The Anglo-Norman authors included Hugh of Rutland, author of the romance Ypomedon (c. 1185), the unknown authors of Amadas et Ydoine, and, no doubt, of the romances with English subjects, Havelok, Horn et Rimenhild, Guy de Warwick, Boeve de Hamtone, and Waldef. Thomas, author of the fine Tristan poem of which only fragments are extant, was an Anglo-Norman. That exquisite poet, Marie de France, was a Frenchwoman writing at the English court. These were all writers of lays or romances. But on the borderland of romance and history, and in regular historiography, there were a number of Anglo-Normans writing in French. Geoffrey Gaimar based his rhymed chronicle, the Estorie des Bretons, on the version of British history recently put forth by Geoffrey of Monmouth; and Geoffrey Wace followed suit in his Brut, which seems to have been a better poem, and consequently to have brought about the eclipse and disappearance of Gaimar's work. We still possess, however, Gaimar's Estorie des Engles, which contains a great deal of legendary and saga material. Wace also wrote a chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, called the Roman de Rou; and his successor in the office of Norman historiographer, Benoît, continued the task in his enormous Chronique des Ducs de Normandie. These and several semi-historical or biographical poems that might be named are of scant literary interest, and to chronicle the fables, contes, and dits, the political songs, satires, parodies, and the like, written by courtiers, knights, or clerks, would make a lengthy catalogue. The most poetical work outside the romances is Bishop Grosseteste's beautiful allegory, the Château d'Amour, a pleasing example of the allegorical poetry typified by the more famous Roman de la Rose. The Castle of Love is the body of the Virgin Mary. In its highest tower God is enthroned, and the four turrets are symbols of the four cardinal virtues. The poem was translated into Latin, and subsequently into English. When English reasserted its rights as a literary language English examples appeared of all these diverse genres. But the most distinctive body of literature in the Middle Ages, both in French and in English, not to mention imitations in other languages, was that broadly designated as romance. Romance developed out of the French chanson de geste, an epical narrative of the deeds of a popular hero, particularly one of the knights and nobles historically or traditionally associated with Charlemagne and his wars. An enormous number of these were produced from the 11th to the 13th century; and, beginning a little later but appearing side by side with the chansons, came the romans d'aventure, narrative poems usually composed in rhyme instead of the laisses or tirades of verse bound together by simple assonance, and more varied in interest, less severe, in short more romantic than the chansons, both in tone and treatment. The Matter of France, of Britain, and of Rome. The romances, including in the term both the types here distinguished, may be roughly divided by their subjects into three groups-the French, the British or Arthurian, and the Classical and Oriental. The conventional division, set forth by the trouvère Jean Bodel, is not very accurate, but with a little correction may be made to serve. In English, when, after the Anglo-Norman poetry, it became possible again to use the vernacular, even in poems or prose works meant for cultivated society-that is to say, from the latter half of the 12th to the end of the 14th century, almost all the poems of any length were translations, paraphrases, or adaptations of French romances belonging to these three groups. It will be convenient to consider these metrical romances more closely under the three well-known heads, the Matter of Britain, which is in the main the Arthurian stories and their connections, coming first; then the Matter of France—that is, the stories of Charlemagne and his peers; and lastly, the Matter of "Rome la grant," which covered all the romances of classical antiquity, those of Troy and Alexander as well as those of Rome. Neither the romancers nor their audiences were troubled by fine distinctions. Even fact and fiction were much the same thing to most of them, and the past was simply the past, not a matter of dates. Thus when the East came into view at the epoch of the Crusades, tales of Byzantium and Egypt were mixed up pell-mell with stories of the ancient Greeks, mostly unhistorical, and the wildest Oriental romance found its way in as the natural embellishment even of tales having a classical basis. There are a number of romances that do not fall under the accepted heads even in the loosest interpretation, such for example as the stories of native English origin which appeared first in Anglo-French poems, and which are quite distinct from what is commonly meant by the Matter of Britain. These miscellaneous items may be left to the last. CHAPTER 4. THE MATTER OF BRITAIN: ARTHURIAN ROMANCE Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the British Kings; his Sources-Adaptations and Main Groups of Romance. As already pointed out, the romances that formed the⚫ most popular body of literature in the age of chivalry fall into three main groups, representing the Matter of France, the Matter of Britain, and the Matter of Rome. The first stands for Charlemagne and his paladins, the second for King Arthur and the legends of the Round Table, and the third for the Homeric doings, the wars of Alexander, and miscellaneous subjects from classical literature, history, and legend. They will be taken here in a different but more convenient order. ORIGINS OF THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.-The book that gave the first great impetus to the growth of Arthurian literature, particularly in England, was the Historia Regum Britanniæ, or History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Little is known of its author. He was born about 1100, probably at Monmouth, and of Welsh blood. His uncle and foster-father was Archdeacon of Llandaff, an office given to Geoffrey on his uncle's advancement to the bishopric. He dedicated his book to the powerful Earl Robert of Gloucester, by whose favour probably it was that he eventually became Bishop of St. Asaph as an acknowledgment of his literary eminence. His Works. He wrote the Prophecies of Merlin, afterwards incorporated as a seventh book in the Historia. The Historia Regum Britannia, composed in ornate Latin prose, was given to the world at some date between 1135 and 1138; its popularity was rapid and widespread. Whether the poem in Latin hexameters, Vita Merlini, the life of Merlin (1148), was by Geoffrey is doubtful. The "Historia."-Geoffrey put forth his book as a serious history of the kings of Britain, from Brutus the Trojan, supposed eponymous founder of the race, to Cadwallader, Arthur's eighth successor, under whom the Britons were finally expelled from their land by the Saxons. He begins with an account of the wanderings of Brutus and establishment of a colony of Trojans in Britain, and of his successors as rulers of the land down to the Roman invasion. This part of the chronicle contains many legends that afterwards furnished material for great literature, such as the story of Sabrina, of Bladud, of King Leir, and of Ferrex and Porrex. Cæsar's invasion and wars with Cassibelaunus, with the historical or mythical events of the Roman period, bring the story down to the obscure times when the Britons were left alone to resist the attacks first of the Picts and then of the Saxons. This is the fullest and most important part of the book, the reign of Arthur taking up about a fifth of the whole, although Geoffrey traces the history of Britain altogether through a millennium and a half. Narrative. After telling of the coming of Hengist and Horsa to Kent, and the weak conduct of the British ruler Vortigern, who married the daughter of Hengist and betrayed his countrymen to the Saxons, he gives an amplified account of the birth of a supernatural boy, whom he identifies with the great enchanter Merlin, devoting the seventh book to Merlin's prophecies about the future of Britain. Aurelius and Uther, sons of Constantinus and brothers of Constans, two Roman kings of Britain mentioned by Bede, now slay Vortigern, and carry on successful war against the Saxons and other foes, Uther becoming King of Britain on the death of Aurelius. Uther loves Igerna, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and through Merlin's arts becomes by her father of Arthur. He defeats Gorlois, marries Igerna, and after continued wars against the Saxons is poisoned by them. Arthur at the age of fifteen becomes king, and in a series of battles ending with the great conflict of Mount Badon (often identified with Bath), in which he performs prodigious deeds of prowess, completely subdues the Saxons, and then defeats the Picts and Scots at the river Duglas. Scotland is restored to its rightful kings, Ireland and Iceland conquered, Gothland and the Orkneys reduced to pay tribute, and Norway and Dacia (Denmark) subdued. Arthur next invades Gaul, which he reduces to submission after nine years of war, bestowing Normandy on Bedivere, Anjou on Kai, and dividing the rest among his knights. Lucius of Rome having threatened vengeance, Arthur prepares a great host to meet him. After several desperate conflicts, he overthrows and kills Lucius in a tremendous battle, in which Bedivere and Kai with other knights are slain. Arthur is on the point of invading Italy when he learns that his nephew Modred, whom he had left in charge of the kingdom, has married his queen, Guenevere, and usurped the throne. He returns forthwith, defeats Modred and his host of Picts and Scots, Saxons and Irish, pursues him into Cornwall, and in a last great battle, in which Modred and most of the leading knights on either side perish, is himself wounded to death, and is carried to the Isle of Avalon to be healed of his wounds. Arthur is succeeded by his kinsman Constantine, under whom and his successors the Britons have many vicissitudes of fortune, their supremacy in Britain ending with the reign of Cadwallader, who flees to Armorica and dies a monk. Geoffrey's Sources.-Geoffrey asserts that he derived his material for the history (2,852) 21 |